Sandy Boulevard upgrades postponed until the spring

Plans to transform a stretch of Northeast Sandy Boulevard into a "modern, urban street" have been delayed until spring 2018, transportation officials say.

Multnomah County had hoped to add this year new turn lanes, sidewalks and bike lanes — plus upgrades to existing bus stops and drainage areas — on a roughly half-mile belt of Sandy between Northeast 230th and 238th avenues in Wood Village.

The project, expected to cost $1.7 million, has been deferred because private utilities haven't finished moving power poles out of the construction zone.

"We typically do not do road construction in the winter, so if we started the work this fall, we would have to shut down for winter and then start again in the spring anyway," county spokesman Mike Pullen said in an email. "So this will shorten the time the road is torn up."

Northeast Arata Road in Wood Village is also being prepped for new sidewalks between Northeast 223rd Avenue and 238th Drive in spring 2018. Pullen says that project, forecast to cost $4.5 million, is still awaiting finished blueprints.

Both projects will likely require some lane closures, though neither is expected to shut off traffic completely.